Chevron wins a round in U.S. suit against lawyer in Ecuador case

NEW YORK, April 25(Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday
rejected a bid by a U.S. lawyer to stall the enforcement of a
ruling that found he used fraud to secure a $9.5 billion
pollution judgment against Chevron Corp in Ecuador.

Lawyer Steven Donziger is appealing a 500-page decision
issued by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in March that barred
him from collecting on a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron
in the United States.

Chevron filed a lawsuit against Donziger in New York,
claiming he used bribery and fake evidence to win the historic
damage award for a group of villagers who claimed the oil giant
polluted an area of northeastern Ecuador.

Ecuador's high court had awarded the villagers $18 billion
in 2011 but later cut the judgment in half.

Kaplan ruled Donziger had bribed a former judge to
ghost-write the Ecuadorean judgment and committed other
improprieties, finding him liable for fraud and racketeering.

Donziger had asked Kaplan to put the decision on hold while
a federal appeals court considers the merits of his challenge, a
process that will likely take months to resolve.

But in Friday's order, Kaplan said Donziger's arguments for
a stay were largely "without merit."